If LSU couldn’t reach the NCAA men’s basketball tournament with Ben Simmons on its roster, how bad would things get once Simmons left?
That was the narrative at the end of last season, when the Tigers finished 19-14, declined an NIT invitation and then lost Simmons, who was the top overall pick in June’s NBA draft after playing just one year in Baton Rouge. Coach Johnny Jones began his fifth season on shaky ground at best, and that hasn’t changed with the Tigers now 9-8 overall and 1-5 in Southeastern Conference play following Wednesday night’s 78-74 loss at Auburn.
“It’s not like we haven’t been in this position before,” Jones said this week. “The first year we started off 0-4 and wound up .500 in the league, and it was because our guys chose to continue to battle. We got better as the season progressed, so we’ve got to make sure we understand fully that to get out of this you’ve got to continue to fight and battle.
“We have to be as competitive as we can, and if we fail to do those things, it certainly won’t get better.”
Jones won 19, 20 and 22 games during his first three seasons at his alma mater, but his third year ended with a 66-65 loss to North Carolina State in an NCAA tournament first-round game. The Tigers collapsed after leading the Wolfpack by 16 early in the second half and still by 14 with nine minutes remaining.
The addition of Simmons seemingly made LSU a sure-fire NCAA tournament team last year, and the Tigers looked the part in racing out to a 9-3 start in SEC play that included an 85-67 pasting of Kentucky. The Tigers, however, dropped into NCAA “bubble” territory by losing four of their last six league games and were cooked with a 71-38 loss to Texas A&M in the semifinals of the SEC tournament.
Sophomore guard Antonio Blakeney and junior forward Craig Victor were the top complements to Simmons a year ago and were expected to lead this season’s team, but Jones dismissed Victor in late December for violating team rules.
“I like this team a lot,” said Jones, who has an 89-59 overall record and a 41-37 league mark with the Tigers. “We just have to keep growing and not looking back.”
Pearl’s milestone
Auburn’s victory Wednesday night was the 500th in the coaching career of Bruce Pearl.
Pearl amassed a 231-46 record at Southern Indiana, an 86-38 record at Milwaukee and a 145-61 mark at Tennessee before NCAA sanctions prevented him from coaching for three years. He is just 38-45 in his third season with the Tigers but did guide them to the SEC tournament semifinals in 2015 and to an upset of Kentucky last January.
Auburn, which hasn’t produced a winning record since going 24-12 under Jeff Lebo in 2009, is 12-6 this season and 2-4 in league play.
“For Auburn to rescue me and get me back into coaching and get me back into my ministry and give me this opportunity has been a great blessing,” Pearl said Wednesday night in a news conference. “I stress about the fact that we’re not winning faster. We’re still a young team, and we still have lots of challenges.
“I still think this is a team that can be in the postseason, but it’s going to be tough.”
The ‘soft’ challenge
Ole Miss coach Andy Kennedy recently gave his players the “soft” label after the Rebels went from leading the SEC in rebound margin to getting outrebounded by 10 in three consecutive games against Auburn, Georgia and South Carolina.
“That’s a recipe of disaster for us,” Kennedy said. “I’m just trying to get guys to be accountable and do what they’re capable of doing, which is being physical and limiting second-chance opportunities.”
The Rebels came out Tuesday night against Tennessee and won the rebound battle 50-42 in their 80-69 comeback triumph.
Odds and ends
ESPN’s Joe Lunardi has four SEC teams in his projected 68-team field, with Kentucky as a 1 seed, Florida a 4 seed, South Carolina a 7 seed and Arkansas a 10 seed. Georgia, which is 12-6 overall and 4-2 in the SEC, is among Lunardi’s “first four out.” Florida went 0-for-17 on 3-point shots in Wednesday’s 57-53 loss at South Carolina, snapping a streak of 850 games dating back to 1992 in which the Gators made at least one 3. Missouri is 6-35 in SEC games the past two-plus seasons.
Contact David Paschall at dpaschall@timesfreepress.com.